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Real estate firm Unitech has posted a 32 per cent year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 43 crore for the quarter ended December, owing to lower operational expenses and interest outgo.
The total expenditure declined year-on-year by eight per cent to Rs 661 crore and finance costs declined by 74 per cent to Rs 7 crore in the quarter. In the same quarter previous year, Unitech had recorded a net profit of Rs 33 crore.
But the income from operations declined to Rs 705 crore in the quarter from Rs 732 crore a year ago, Unitech said.
The company said it had a healthy balance sheet, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The net debt as of December 31 was Rs 6,301 crore.
Unitech MD Sanjay Chandra said, "Demand for residential space continues to be sluggish and it may take a few more quarters for the demand to revive. The company has been taking measures over the last few quarters to deal with this challenging environment and these have begun to bear fruit."
For the nine months ended December 31, 2014, the total income and net profit stood at Rs 2,661.67 crore and Rs 34.20 crore, respectively. Unitech's shares today closed flat at Rs 16.70 crore on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
